Claris Ventures is a Turin-based venture fund that invests exclusively in early-stage biotech therapeutics, building companies from the Italian research ecosystem—including academic spinouts and Italian scientists working abroad—by co-founding companies, shaping strategy, and staying involved through the board, with the goal of reaching early clinical proof and pharma partnerships; it has been called the first and main Italian VC focused on biotech, backed by anchor investors EIF and CDP Venture Capital. Its portfolio has attracted deals with Sanofi, Bristol Myers Squibb, and ONO Pharmaceutical, and the fund also works with Evotec to give portfolio companies access to preclinical development and manufacturing, while its Lever Bio initiative sources drug candidates directly from Italian universities and research centers before companies are even formed.